President Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln, ABRAHAM,
sixteenth President of the United States, was born in Hardin county,
Ky., Feb. 12, 1809. His ancestors were Quakers in Berks county, Pa. His
parents, born in Virginia, emigrated to Kentucky, and in 1816 went to
Indiana. Having had about one year's schooling in the aggregate, he went
as a hired hand on a flat-boat to New Orleans when he was nineteen years
of age. He made himself so useful to his employer that he gave him
charge as clerk of a store and mill at New Salem, Illinois. He commanded
a company in the Black Hawk War. Appointed postmaster at Salem, he began
to study law, was admitted to practice in 1836, and began his career as
a lawyer at Springfield. He rose rapidly in his profession, became a
leader of the Whig party in Illinois, and was a popular though homely
speaker at political meetings.

He was elected to Congress in 1847,
and was there distinguished for his outspoken anti-slavery views. In
1858 he was a candidate for United States Senator. His opponent, Judge
Douglas, won the prize from the legislature, though Mr. Lincoln received
4,000 more votes of the people than his opponent. In 1860 and 1864 he
was elected President of the United States. Ordinances of secession and
the beginning of civil war followed his first election. He conducted the
affairs of the nation with great wisdom through the four years of the
Civil War, and just as it closed was assassinated at the national
capital, dying April 15, 1865.

His Journey to the Capital.

The President-elect left his home in
Springfield. Ill., Feb. 11, 1861, for Washington, D. C., accompanied by
a few personal and political friends. To the crowd at the railway station,
evidently impressed with the solemn responsibility laid on him, he said:

President Elect Abraham Lincoln, February 19,
1861

"A duty devolves on me which is, perhaps,
greater than that which has devolved upon any man since that of
Washington. He never could have succeeded except for the aid of Divine
Providence, upon which he at all times relied. I feel that I cannot
succeed without the same divine aid which sustained him, and on the same
Almighty Being I place my reliance for support; and I hope you, my
friends, will all pray that I may receive that divine assistance without
which I cannot succeed, but with which success is certain." The journey
then undertaken was performed at about the same time that Jefferson
Davis, the elected President of the Southern Confederacy, was on his way
from his home to the
capital of the Confederacy.

Lincoln made a long journey of hundreds
of miles through Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, everywhere

was greeted with demonstrations of
profound respect, and speaking to the crowds who came out to see him
words full of cheerfulness, kindness, forbearance, and tenderness.
Common prudence counseled him to say little or nothing on the grave
affairs of state, but occasionally words would drop from his lips that
clearly indicated his views and intentions. He often alluded to the
condition of the country. "It is my intention," he said at Pittsburg,
"to give this subject all the consideration I possibly can before
specially deciding in regard to it, so that when I do speak I may be as
nearly right as possible. I hope I may say nothing in opposition to the
spirit of the Constitution, contrary to the integrity of the Union, or
which will prove inimical to the liberties of the people or the peace of
the whole country." At the
Astor House, in New York, he said to a multitude who greeted
him: "When the time does come for me to speak, I shall then take the
ground that I think is right—right for the North, for the South, for the
East, for the \Vest, and for the whole country" Mr. Lincoln was received
by the municipal authorities of New York City at the City Hall, where
Mayor Wood, who had recently set forth the advantages that the
commercial mart would derive from its secession from all government,
admonished the President-elect that it was his duty "to so conduct
public affairs as to preserve the Union." Mr. Lincoln arrived in
Philadelphia Feb. 21, where he was informed of a plan in Baltimore to
assassinate him, on his way through that city to Washington.

Abraham
Lincoln at Independence Hall

On the following morning (Washington's
birthday) he hoisted the national flag, with his own hands, over the old
State-house, in the presence of a vast multitude of citizens. In his
speech on that occasion he referred to the Declaration of Independence,
adopted and signed in that building, and said that it was the sentiment
of perfect freedom to all contained in that document which had kept the
Union together so long, and promised the same blessing, in due time, to
all men. "If this country," he said, "cannot be saved by this principle,
I was about to say I would rather be assassinated on this spot than
surrender it. I have said nothing but what I am willing to live by, and,
if it be the pleasure of Almighty God, die by." His friends believed his
life would be in danger if he carried out the prescribed plan of his
journey to visit Harrisburg, and thence direct through Baltimore to
Washington.

But he persisted in keeping his
engagement, and went on to Harrisburg. Meanwhile revelations had been
made that convinced his friends that he would be assassinated if the
whole plan should be carried out, and he was persuaded to go back to
Philadelphia that night, and so on to Washington, instead of waiting
until the next day. He passed through Baltimore unobserved, and arrived
in Washington early on the morning of Feb. 26.

The 1861 Lincoln Assassination Plot

—His movements at that time gave currency
to many absurd and untruthful stories. Mr. Lincoln gave, orally, to the
late Benson J. Lossing, early in December, substantially the following
narrative of the affair: "I arrived at Philadelphia on the 21st. I
agreed to stop overnight, and on the following morning hoist the flag
over Independence Hall. In the evening there was a great crowd where I
received my friends, at the Continental Hotel. Mr. Judd, a warm personal
friend from Chicago, sent for me to come to his room. I went, and found
there Mr. Pinkerton, a skilful police detective, also from Chicago, who
had been employed for some days in Baltimore watching or searching for
suspicious persons there. Pinkerton informed me that a plan had been
laid for my assassination, the exact time when I expected to go through
Baltimore being publicly known. He was well informed as to the plan, but
did not know that the conspirators would have pluck enough to execute
it. He urged me to go right through with him to Washington that night. I
didn't like that. I had made engagements to visit Harrisburg and go from
there to Baltimore, and I resolved to do so. I could not believe that
there was a plot to murder me. I made arrangements, however, with Mr.
Judd for my return to Philadelphia the next night, if I should be
convinced that there was danger in going through Baltimore. I told him
that if I should meet at Harrisburg, as I had at other places, a
delegation to go with me to the next place (then Baltimore), I should
feel safe and go on. When I was making my way back to my room, through
crowds of people, I met Frederick Seward. We went together to my room,
when he told me that he had been sent, at the instance of his father and
General Scott, to inform me that their detectives in Baltimore had
discovered a plot there to assassinate me. They knew nothing of
Pinkerton's movements. I now believed such a plot to be in existence.
The next morning I raised the flag over Independence Hall, and then went
on to Harrisburg with Mr. Sumner,
Major (now General) Hunter, Mr. Judd, Mr. Lamon, and others. There I
met the legislature and people, dined, and waited until the time
appointed for me to leave (six o'clock in the evening). In the mean time
Mr. Judd had so secured the telegraph that no communication could pass
to Baltimore and give the conspirators knowledge of a change in my
plans. In New York some friend had given me a new beaver hat, in a box,
and in it had placed a soft wool hat. I had never worn one of the latter
in my life. I had this box in my room. Having informed a very few
friends of the secret of my new movements, and the cause, I put on an
old overcoat that I had with me, and, putting the soft hat in my pocket,
I walked out of the house at a back door, bareheaded, without exciting
any special curiosity. Then I put on the soft hat and joined my friends
without being recognized by strangers, for I was not the same man.
Sumner and Hunter wished to accompany me. I said, "No; you are known,
and your presence might betray me. I will only take Lamon [afterwards
marshal of the District of Columbia, whom nobody knew] and Mr. Judd."
Sumner and Hunter felt hurt. We went back to Philadelphia, and found a
message there from Pinkerton [who had returned to Baltimore] that the
conspirators had held their final meeting that evening, and it was
doubtful whether they had nerve enough to attempt the execution of their
purpose. I went on, however, as the arrangement had been made, in a
special train. We were a long time in the station at Baltimore. I heard
people talking around, but no one particularly observed me. At an early
hour on Saturday morning [Feb. 23], at about the time I was expected to
leave Harrisburg, I arrived in Washington." Mr. Lincoln was received at
the railway station by Mr. Washburne, member of Congress from Illinois,
and taken to Willard's Hotel.

The Gettysburg Address.

—At the dedication of the National
Cemetery on the
Gettysburg battlefield, Nov. 19, 1863, Mr. Lincoln delivered his
immortal speech, which is presented below:

Abraham Lincoln Presenting the Gettysburg
Address

"
Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this
continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a
great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived
and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of
that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final
resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might
live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But,
in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot
hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here
have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The
world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can
never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be
dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have
thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to
the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take
increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full
measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall
not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new
birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for
the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Lincoln's Re-election

—In the administration party were men who
deprecated the cautious policy of Mr. Lincoln and were opposed to his
re-election. They held a nominating convention at Cleveland, 0hio, May
31, 1864. It was composed of about 350 persons, very few of whom were
regularly chosen delegates. They were called "the radical men of the
nation." They adopted a "platform of principles," consisting of thirteen
resolutions, among which was one proposing an amendment to the
Constitution to prevent the re-establishment of slavery; another
declaring the wisdom of the MONROE DOCTRINE; a third asserting the
policy of restricting the incumbency of the Presidential office to one
term; a fourth recommending the election of President directly by the
people; a fifth proposing to commit the business of "re-construction" to
the people; and a sixth enjoining the duty of confiscating the property
of the Confederates and giving it to the Union soldiers and actual
settlers. They nominated
General John C. Fremont for President, and General John Cochrane for
Vice-President. These nominees afterwards withdrew. The Union National
Convention assembled at Baltimore June 7, wherein all the States and
Territories were represented by delegates, excepting those in the
Confederacy. Their "platform of principles" was equally strong in
support of national honor, national freedom, the
emancipation of the slaves and the perpetuation of their freedom,
the Monroe Doctrine, etc. It was the regular Republican Convention. It
endorsed the acts of the administration, and nominated Abraham Lincoln
for President and
Andrew Johnson for Vice-President.

The Democratic National Convention met at
Chicago, Aug. 20.
Horatio Seymour of New York, was its chairman, and in his opening
address on taking the chair, he expressed sentiments of extreme
hostility to the policy of the administration, and condemnatory of the
war for the preservation of the union. They adopted a "platform
of principles." composed of six resolutions. It declared the
fidelity of the
Democratic party to the Union; that the war was a failure, and that
"humanity, liberty, and the public welfare " demanded its immediate
cessation; that the government, through its military power, had
interfered with elections in four of the late slave-labor States, and
was, consequently, guilty of revolutionary action, which should be
resisted; that the government had been guilty of unwarrantable
usurpations (which were specified), and also been guilty of a shameful
disregard of duty respecting the exchange of prisoners and the relief of
its suffering captives. The resolutions closed with an assurance that
the Democratic party extended its sympathy to the Union soldiers, and
that, in the event of their obtaining power, the soldiers should receive
all the care and protection and kindness which they deserved.
General George B. McClellan, who had been relieved from military
duty about twenty months before, was nominated for President, and George
Pendleton, of Ohio, for Vice-President. The opposing parties carried on
the canvass with great vigor during the autumn. The real practical issue
was expressed in two words —Union and Disunion. Mr. Lincoln was
reelected by an unprecedented majority in the electoral college. His
opponent—General McClellan—received the votes only of the two late
slave-labor States of Delaware and Kentucky and the State of New Jersey.
The soldiers in the army gave 121,000 votes for Lincoln and 35,050 for
McClellan, or three to one in favor of the former. They did not regard
the war in which they were struggling as a "failure." The freedmen
rejoiced at the result, for they regarded it as the seal of their sure
deliverance, for there was a wonderful power slumbering behind that
vote.

In his second term, Lincoln oversaw the
successful prosecution of the war, and saw the fruits of his labor . . .
preservation of the Union, and the elimination of slavery.